I'm due to be buying my parents car off them on Wednesday. They currently have disability tax on it, so I need to go into the DVLA office to change the classification of the tax - obviously to do this I'll need to provide my insurance certificate.
The problem I have is that I don't get paid until Wednesday, and due to the amount of money I've had to spend on my current car fixing it up I haven't got the money in my bank to pay the deposit / first months insurance until I do get paid. However, if I sort the insurance out on Wednesday, I won't get my insurance certificate until a number of days after (taking into account bank holiday Friday and Monday, unlikely to be until next week), and therefore I won't be able to tax the car or drive it.
Do insurers generally want the money paid to them on the day the insurance is arranged? Or would it normally be the day its due to start?
One option which I'm going to check out tomorrow is just swapping my insurance from my Mondeo to the new car with my current insurer as its not due to end until 18th April, however as I'm going from a 2.0 Mondeo to a 2.2 Zafira I'm assuming they'll want more money off me as well, which again would be immediate if I want the documents sending out. Going forward I'll be going to a new insurer as through the comparison sites my existing insurer (Santander) as asking for twice the amount of the cheapest, for the same level of cover.
Alternatively, would an emailed and printed certificate usually be acceptable for the DVLA, or would it have to be printed or faxed (I think I've had them faxed to me before)? My printer includes fax facilities so I could hook it up to receive a fax.